1. Field of the Invention
Example embodiments of the present invention relate generally to an integrated circuit card, more particularly, to an integrated circuit card with a flash memory.
2. Description of the Related Art
As portable digital devices, such as digital cameras, MP3 players, color mobile telephones, and personal digital assistants (PDA), are widely becoming popular, the demand for integrated circuit cards (e.g., memory cards), such as a multimedia card (hereinafter, referred to as MMC) and a secure digital (SD) card may be rapidly increasing. A memory card may be a storage device as small as a postage stamp with contents that may not be erased even without the supply of power. The relatively reduced size and excellent storage ability may be regarded as a required function in the information-oriented society.
A conventional MMC card may include a command line of, for example, 1 bit, and data lines of, for example, 8 bits. The MMC card may also write and/or read data in units of bytes in accordance with a command input from a host. However, according to the above specification, one MMC card may perform only one function and may not possible perform two functions while one function is performing. Further, even if two or more MMC cards are connected to an application, only one card at a time may actually transmit data to and receive data from the host. Therefore, even if plural MMC cards are connected, it may not be possible to simultaneously perform a plurality of functions.
The MMC card may require time that may be longer than the time required for common writing/reading operations in order to perform a secured function. That is, when a normal MMC operation is supported during the writing/reading operations, the secured function may not be guaranteed. Alternatively, when the normal MMC operation is not supported, a user may have to wait until the secured function is performed. Such a problem occurs in the SD card as well as in the MMC card.